Last Movie you Watched?

I'd say what happens to poor old Stu is disturbing ... .

That it is.

Hardly shocking though - it is Thailand.

The Girl Who Played with Fire

A sleep-inducing, made-for-TV sequel that comes nowhere close to matching the intensity and atmosphere of the first film. The human trafficking plotline had so much potential, but then just went nowhere. I have no interest in reading Larsson's novels, but surely they've got to be more interesting to justify the global fascination with this trilogy.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Star Trek : First Contact - easily the best of the Next Gen flicks, and hugely enjoyable. Strange how most of the CGI in this 15 year old movie looks more convincing than some of what I've seen in the Green Lantern trailer .

There was a lot of model work, though the new, sleek ships fighting the Borg were CGI.

It all fitted together pretty much seamlessly.

That's why JURASSIC PARK's fx worked and still do. A good 2/3 of it was done in camera, with animatronics, or puppetry. Now everyone thinks they can just bypass all of that, and go straight to the blue screen.

Replacement Killers. Gawd, I love that film......

Ravenstone wrote:

Replacement Killers. Gawd, I love that film......

Antoine Fuqua.

Ravenstone Fuqmia.

Sharky wrote:

Ravenstone Fuqmia.

Now there's an offer for a Friday night.

It has guns. Lots of them. And Chow Yun Fat. I'm a woman of simple tastes. They do it for me.

The Killers (1946; dir. Robert Siodmak)

The biggest test for the film is this - does it justify the events of the short story? That's what everything hangs on. My answer? Mostly yes. The beginning is certainly the best part of the film in my eyes. Not only does it faithfully depict the story, but it reeks of having a real life behind it. After such a killer opening, how can anything live up to it?

If I were to do an adaptation of this story (which I would love to do; setting it in South Los Angeles and having it star Chiwetel Ejiofor in the Lee Marvin role of the '64 version as one of the actual killers) I'd have the Swede's sins be a bit more than just trying to run off with the takings of a heist. I'd have him do something so bad that he'd actually feel he deserves to die. Ripping off professional criminals? I'd go in the directtion that he killed an innocent person or something. I'd have him start as a good guy, and become corrupted to point of killing someone. And it destroys him so much he's just waiting to die afterward. And this would maybe have an effect on the main killer character in my version.

But this unfolds very well, keeping things moving and keeping them interesting. I like O'Brien and his no nonsense professionalism with just a hint of being personally interested. But probably it's just to satisfy whatever innate sense of curiousity that lead him to detective work.

The cast is great. Charles MacGraw is cool as hell. Ava Gardner is outta this world.

I'll get around the '64 version later tonight.

EDIT: Actually, my version would see the corruption of the Swede and the decorruption of the killer.

A double dose of Asian cinema...

2046 (2004) Dir: Wong Kar-Wai

My first outing of the visually excellent Wong-Kar Wai but I feel stupid for not watching In The Mood For Love first since this a loose sequel and it would put the plot more into perspective.

The visuals are as sumptuous, with beautiful composition and use of colour complimented by a stunning yet skilled cast. For me though, the story engaged enough to keep me from getting bored but was little more involving than that. A series of vignettes in which two attractive people meet, don't fall in love and then part just did not involve or move me in any way and was the weakest part of the film but the score by Shigeru Umebayshi (I hope that's right) added another layer of brilliance to the film.

Tony Leung breathes life into the role and his narration gives the movie a transcendant atmosphere. The subtle and quiet pace is perfect for the themes of love expressed. It has an exquisite array of women most notably Zhang Ziyi. One of the most beautiful looking films I've seen and I look forward to catching up the rest of Wong-Kar Wai's oeuvre.

Tokyo Sonata (2008) Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

It did feel like a typical drama sbout a dysfunctional family at the beginning and had me doubting that credentials of someone who made Japanese horror films and decided to focus on social issues as a bad career move but it became more powerful and effective as it went along. The issues of the financial crisis and the recession could very well resonate with anyone and not just the Japanese.

In lesser hands this could have become a contrived and cliched mess which it was becoming before the third act made the movie much stronger. Kurosawa is able to create an atmosphere nearly instantly and give each main character his or her own set of problems, brilliantly linking them all together in a very powerful conclusion. There is an unnecessary subplot between the burglar and the wife but it highlighted an era of downsizing, debt and financial ruin.

It ends with a great rendition of Claire De Lune which is always a joy. Despite feeling somewhat unremarkable, It gives an honest look at the struggles of a family with relationships, financial stability, and crushed or yet unfulfilled dreams

Two Asians. I've never done that.

It's great, but you know what it's like - a couple of hours later, you fancy more :D

Good thing there's plenty to go around.

Last movie I watched was Glengarry Glen Ross, based on people here praising it. That was a few weeks ago. Liked it a lot. There you go, that's my in-depth review.

I still regret selling that DVD.

I still think Alec Baldwin should have made a great Two-Face in a better 1995 Batman flick.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Star Trek : First Contact - easily the best of the Next Gen flicks, and hugely enjoyable. Strange how most of the CGI in this 15 year old movie looks more convincing than some of what I've seen in the Green Lantern trailer .

There was a lot of model work, though the new, sleek ships fighting the Borg were CGI.

Yup, it was the last movie to feature an actual model of the Enterprise. INSURRECTION was the first to go completely CGI and it really showed. Shame. FIRST CONTACT's f/x is really what other movies should follow where model work is used while CGI is only used to enhance. MOON makes a good recent example and that blows away anything in nuTrek.

I hate that cartoonish Prequel look. I know Abrams wanted to make a Star Wars movie, but why did he have to settle for ROBER RABBIT-like CGI?

Any questions that involve choices that Abrams has made for his films can be answered with:

PT-109

I'm pretty sure the film could've been shorter, for one thing. For a while it felt like it was dragging its heels, maybe it was some weight of expectation behind the film what with JFK having some hand in choosing Cliff Robertson and especially Kennedy being president at the time. Wasn't too bad once they got past the collision (curiously, George Takei as the Jap' helmsman). But thank God for John Gregory.

GeneralGogol wrote:

The Girl Who Played with Fire

A sleep-inducing, made-for-TV sequel that comes nowhere close to matching the intensity and atmosphere of the first film. The human trafficking plotline had so much potential, but then just went nowhere. I have no interest in reading Larsson's novels, but surely they've got to be more interesting to justify the global fascination with this trilogy.

they surely are

if "Dragon Tattoo" was a "Sherlock Holmes" mystery which stays pretty much within the realms of the believable "real" world
"Played With Fire" is a "James Bond" adventure which has moved into a "larger than life" world, as symbolised by the grotesque characteristics of it's villains

Double bill of:

The Fantastic Voyage: 1966 with Stephen Boyd as miniaturized Bond and Raquel Welch as great looking in form fitting jump suit. Also with Donald Pleasance rehearsing his future Blofeld role

Planet of the Apes: 1968. Greatest film ever made starring greatest actor ever, Chuck "take your stinkin paws off me, you damned dirty ape" Heston. Also starring Linda Harrison as scantily clad, busty wild girl, and a bunch of others in Ape outfits including Norman Burton (Felix Leiter) as Ape Hunt Leader.

The film is a political cautionary tale. 2000 years in the future Peta, Greenpeace and other liberal terrorist groups have managed to destroy human civilization, reduce humanity to wild animals, install ape government and have returned home to Planet Pluto. Mission Accomplished.

Our, hero Chuck "It's a madhouse!! It's a madhouse!!" Heston has traveled through time to lead the human resistance.


==This was an actual cinema double bill circa 1969. Hollywood, please bring this double bill back in super widescreen HD digital.Thank you.

Seve wrote:

GeneralGogol wrote:

The Girl Who Played with Fire

A sleep-inducing, made-for-TV sequel that comes nowhere close to matching the intensity and atmosphere of the first film. The human trafficking plotline had so much potential, but then just went nowhere. I have no interest in reading Larsson's novels, but surely they've got to be more interesting to justify the global fascination with this trilogy.

Not really. Literary or film quality often's got little to do with cult status or fan phenomenon. It's the MILLENNIUM TRILOGY's 'edginess' that draws people in. The desire to be shocked. The actual content of the novels ain't much better than Dan Brown.

I'm needing to educate myself on Planet of the Apes...The new one coming out intrigues me a bit...

The last movie I saw was:

I wanted to see this immediately when I saw the poster. That’s mainly because of Ewan McGregor, who can basically do no wrong by me.

It’s told from McGregor’s character’s point of view, including his narration. Often times, the narration is accompanied by still pictures that break up the narrative in a fun and quirky way. Melanie Laurent has got to be one of the most instantly lovable actresses I’ve ever seen, but I must say, I like her best when she’s speaking her native french. Christopher Plummer is awesome, too.

The movie really brings you through a range of emotions, but I felt that the overall message of the film was that it’s never to late to find love, and you should never give up looking for it.

So if you get a chance to see it, I totally recommend it.

It was nice to see something outside of the average multiplex type stuff we have at my theater. Always a good reason to go to the uptown side of the city.

Fort Worth (1951) Dir. Edwin L. Marin

Terrific little Western that works as a sort of proto-MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE. Randolph Scott's a newspaper man heading down to San Antonio by wagon train, by chance he meets up with a former friend who convinces him to return to the town of his youth - Fort Worth, once a bustling city now a ghost town ruined by economic crisis and the lack of a railroad to ship cattle, and under the thumb of evil cattle drivers. However town heavyweight David Brian (an old friend of Scott's as well) wants to change it all by getting the railroad, and by Scott's words and his deed, he wants to transform Fort Worth. However, could there be another motive to Brian's town-building?

As a cheap Western it features some footage lifted from DODGE CITY of 12 years earlier, but the rest is top quality. :)

Thanks for the tip LaLa. Helps to know of some contemporary alternative comedey fare that is worth watching.
As for Apes - watch the original. It gets better with each viewing. I pretty much have all the dialogue memorized, at least everything Chuck says, and still I never weary of it. :)
Original apes towers over all of the sequels.
The new film though may try and work with continuity from Tim Burton's 2001,"re-invisioning." Then again, it may not, as the Burton film ended in a very confusing way. The new filmmakers may have elected not to be burdened by Burton's ending.
Nevertheless, the new film does at least look like a possible re-working of the the 4th film from the original series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, in which the apes revolt and take over the planet. Can't wait though.

A new apes movie is almost as exciting as a new Bond film. :bounce: